Thousands of users across the globe were unable to log in and access their Twitter accounts after a massive outage. The incident is similar to the outages in February and July, but this is the most significant one after Elon Musk’s takeover of the microblogging platform in October. Read to find out more details on the outage, how long it lasted and what Twitter CEO Elon Musk had to say about it.
Twitter outage details
The recent Twitter outage started when people across the globe reported problems when they tried to use their accounts. The outage did not affect the entire site and problems emerged only for a selected number of users.
- According to website outage tracker Downdetector, Twitter received user reports of login failure from over 10000 users in the United States, 2500 from Japan, and 2500 from the United Kingdom.
- At the peak of the outage, Twitter users who were able to access the platform noticed a significant change in performance between the mobile, app, and desktop versions of the site.
Yes, Twitter error, I know it's not my fault. In fact, I even know whose fault it is!#TwitterDown pic.twitter.com/dlWE8Nb4EK
— Anthony Citrano (@acitrano) December 29, 2022
- Twitter users attempting to login were greeted with an error message that read, “Something went wrong, but don’t fret – it’s not your fault. Let’s try again.”
Elon Musk reaction
Although there was no official statement from Twitter on the outage, Elon Musk posted a few tweets that can be perceived as damage control.
- Without directly addressing the service disruption, Musk stated that the platform should be faster thanks to backend server architecture changes.
Significant backend server architecture changes rolled out. Twitter should feel faster.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2022
- Elon Musk also responded to another tweet that complained of Twitter being broken with a witty “Works for me” message.
Works for me
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2022
#TwitterDown trends
The hashtag #TwitterDown started trending as soon as the platform suffered an outage. This hashtag resurfaces on the microblogging platform whenever there is a service disruption.
Ex Twitter employees right now: #TwitterDown pic.twitter.com/vDJoVVrXWY
— Stan Lewis (@StanLewis_) December 29, 2022
Twitter users looked at the light-hearted side of this situation and posted memes on the outage. They mocked that people went to check Instagram to see if Twitter was down.
Problems at Twitter
- Quite evidently, the Twitter outage is possibly the least of the company’s problems. Ever since Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk acquired the platform for $44 billion, Twitter has been the center of global attention.
- Elon Musk’s management has divided Twitter politically with conservatives and right-wing organizations supporting his views on “free speech”. On the other hand, liberals are concerned about widespread misinformation and hate speech on the platform.
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
Over 57% of 17 million Twitter users voted in favor of Elon Musk stepping down as CEO of the platform, in a poll created by the billionaire owner himself. Musk said he’ll quit Twitter as soon as he finds someone “foolish enough” to take the job.
RELATED NEWS: Twitter: Should Elon Musk be more lenient? + Reasons for employees’ exit
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